'Too early' to declare recovery of the world property market

Date:Friday 11th September 2009
Author: Susanna Kavka

It is too early to say that the global property market is seeing a full recovery but there are encouraging signs, says an overseas property expert.

Paul Collins, editor at BuyAssociation, said there are signs of improvement in the foreign property market and there is certainly more confidence around the sector.

He stated that he hoped that these encouraging signs might tempt more British people to invest in houses abroad, although he warned that in many countries such as Dubai they would have to be in for the long haul.

"Just about every government out there has taken some fairly substantial measures to protect their economy and to protect property prices as part of that," he said.

When asked which countries were popular for foreign investment at the moment, Mr Collins mentioned that most parts of Scandinavia are seeing a lot of interest because people wanted to get away from stresses and spend time with family.

This week, Knight Frank published its Global House Index which indicated that property prices increased in just under half of European countries in the second quarter of the year.